Pictured here is "A Girl," 2006, by Australian artist Ron Mueck, from an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

This "museum insider" feature examines several works from the exhibition, and provides essential questions for teachers to use with students. Topics for discussion include the size and scale of the work, all of which are either smaller than life-sized, or dramatically larger-than-life; for example, this sculpture of a baby is approximately 16 feet long!

Learn more about the artist and the exhibition here ➤

Essential questions and topics for discussion about Louise Bourgeois' Holograms include:

• How are holograms made?
• Who invented holograms?

This Gallery Insider feature also includes a video with footage from the exhibition, including a "walk-by" of two hologram works so that the viewer can see how they transform based on the viewer's angle of vision.

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about Iván Navarro's work include:

• Can you pick up the artist's professed element of fear inherent in his work?
• How necessary is language and biographical information when processing the meaning of these pieces?
• A look at an art historical reference point in the title (and theme?) of one of his works.

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Lee Krasner exhibition include:

• Krasner's method for painting large-scale works and how it relates to the measurements.
• What was involved in Krasner's transformation from Academy painter to abstract artist?
• How did Krasner differ from many of the other Abstract Expressionist painters of her era?

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition include:

• What might be the purpose of this oval-shaped architectural space within the gallery space?
• What is the significance of 1,000 Buddhas?
• What do you think of Sugimoto's approach of representing the collection of Buddhas in two distinct ways? (still photographs and moving video)

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Vik Muniz exhibition include:

• In this age of photo-sharing sites such as Instagram and Flickr, do families still create photo albums?
• How does Muniz use the smaller photographs to differentiate between the foreground and the background?
• We refer to these art works as "photographs," yet they appear to be collages. So why aren't we calling them collages?

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Atul Dodiya exhibition include:

• See how the artist utilizes a sliding metal security gate to create an interactive art work, and then learn that the metal gates have a cultural significance related to his hometown of Mumbai.
• Discuss Dodiya's use of American pop art as well as traditional Indian art.
• The gate reveals a second image which brings the question: is the artist commenting on American celebrity culture?
• Who is Shakuntala and how does that relate to what is going on in this art work?

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Jeff Koons exhibition include:

• What is the significance of attaching garden or patio spheres to copies of classical sculpture?
• What is kitsch?
• How would you define "high art" and "low art?"
• What about the vast difference in value between some of these sculptures and the common objects they mimic?

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the How & Nosm exhibition include:

• What is a "pop-up" show?
• Can you identify autobiographical elements in the work, which reflect on their childhood in Spain and Germany?
• How did poverty and family issues such as divorce and parental alcoholism get reflected in the imagery of their art?
• How might making art be cathartic, and what does that mean?
• How do they use symbolism and what is anthropomorphism?

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Essential questions and topics for discussion about the Tam Van Tran exhibition include:

• Kinetic art and the effects of movement in Tran's work.
• Should the viewer be required to know the artist's biographical information in order to understand the art?
• Do you interpret the paintings as beautiful, or violent?
• The artist is Vietnamese-American, and was born in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Violence that he witnessed is reflected in some of the titles of the artworks.
• Investigate cultural significance in his choice of materials.
• Do you consider these to be paintings? If so, is the artist expanding the idea of what constitutes a painting?

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